These are the ponderings of a Repentant Poaching Parson

Menu

TIGHTWAD or PECULIAR?

There are some interesting places in the “Show Me” state of Missouri. After I left my friend Dave Meyers in the sprawling metropolis of ROACH and headed west I found some more little towns that merited a stop and see. The locals claim that Roach was named for a Frenchman whose name was something like ‘Roache” but if you have been in the area you know that it was most likely that crawling bug the Mexican sing about- “La Cucaracha”. The devilish black cussed crawler we call a cockroach!

I can’t help but wonder how these towns got their names?

I hope you don’t mind being called “Peculiar”. Somebody was willing to give it as the name of their town. It does make you want to know the origins of the moniker. I wonder if it was a bunch of Christians who settled there and just took God at Word and admitted to the world that “the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself,” in Deuteronomy 1:2. Peter applied to Christians in his letter 1 Peter 2:9: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;” And as I read my Bible, if we act like New Testament Christians we will be a peculiar people.

And where did the town of Tightwad get it’s name? I’ve had a number of responses to this one when I posted it on my Facebook page. Usually from folks referring to their spouse and some even to themselves. I suppose they are referring to the miserly tendency to hang on to their money. Like the fellow they talked about when I was a kid who would pinch a penny so tightly that ‘ole Honest Abe would squeal!

But as I drove away, the Lord seemed to challenge me that I was often a real tightwad. A miserable miser when it came to hanging on to that treasure in my earthen vessel. That great and precious truth of the Wonderful Word of God and the glorious light of the Gospel whereby we are saved.

God, please don’t let me be a tightwad when I meet my fellow citizens who desperately need the Love of God.